Vijaykrishnan Narayanan, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, provided a briefing last week on brain-inspired computing systems hosted by the Senate and House National Labs Caucuses.

Science and Technology

Science and Technology

A synthetic membrane that self assembles and is easily produced may lead to better gas separation, water purification, drug delivery and DNA recognition, according to an international team of researchers.

A device to mix liquids utilizing ultrasonics is the first and most difficult component in a miniaturized system for low-cost analysis of sputum from patients with pulmonary diseases such as tuberculosis and asthma.

Scientists with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III (SDSS) have created a new map of the Milky Way that provides the first clear evidence of migration of stars throughout our galaxy. The study, which determined that 30 percent of stars have traveled across the galaxy, is bringing a new understanding of how stars are formed and travel throughout the Milky Way.

Scientific experiments with the herpesvirus that causes Marek's disease in poultry have confirmed, for the first time, the highly controversial theory that some vaccines could allow more-virulent versions of a virus to survive, putting unvaccinated individuals at greater risk of severe illness. The research has important implications for food-chain security and food-chain economics, as well as for other diseases that affect humans and agricultural animals.

Penn State engineers have developed a new ‘portable power supply’ that will make it easier to manufacture plastics, therapeutics, fuels and other chemicals from sustainable feedstocks using diverse microbial organisms.

Yong Wang, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Penn State, was recently awarded a five-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to develop programmable biomaterials.

Michael Janik, professor of chemical engineering and John J. and Jean M. Brennan Clean Energy Early Career Professor in the College of Engineering, has been awarded two independent research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) totaling over $478,000.

A fast-moving pulsar appears to have punched a hole in a disk of gas around its companion star and to have launched a fragment of the disk outward at a speed of about 40 million miles per hour. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is tracking this cosmic clump, which appears to be picking up speed as it moves out. The catapulted material weighs about as much as all the water in the Earth's oceans.

In early June, Penn State hosted representatives from Volvo Group Trucks Technology and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) to explore an East Coast-West Coast collaboration around intelligent commercial vehicle research.

The greater than three-fold increase in autism diagnoses among students in special education programs in the United States between 2000 and 2010 may be due in large part to the reclassification of individuals who previously would have been diagnosed with other intellectual disability disorders, according to new research.

Graphene, the first 2D material, hasn't yet lived up to its hype--but researchers are creating a wide range of other 2D materials with potential as semiconductors, air quality sensors, photoluminescent devices, and more.

A Penn State faculty member with expertise in information and communication technology use in humanitarian and international development organizations has been named co-director of the Institute for Information Policy at the University.

Jim Pawelczyk, associate professor of physiology, kinesiology and medicine at Penn State, testified before the Subcommittee on Space in the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Friday, July 10 in Washington, D.C.

As visitors descend on State College and the Penn State campus for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts an updated app developed by researchers at the College of Information Sciences and Technology will give attendees an opportunity to create their own activities and connect with other festival goers through a “meetup” format.